by Gina Scarpa

Last night, on the season finale of Survivor: Tocantins, JT and Stephen continued to run the game by blindsiding Taj and then voting Erinn out at the following tribal council.  With immunity around his neck, JT stayed true to his word, bringing Stephen to the finals with him.  In only the second time in Survivor history, the votes in JT's favor were unanimous and he walked away with the million dollar prize.  Today, the two women voted out of the game just shy of the finale spoke to reporters in a conference call.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Taj, going into the game, how much of you was planning on keeping the fact that you’re Eddie George’s wife and a former pop star a secret from the other players?
A. Taj: You know what was funny?  During that four hour trek in, I decided to be as honest as possible.  The people I was on the tribe with had no idea who I was but I knew that Timbira knew all about me.  I knew that if I lied at that point, it would hurt me at the merge.  As we walked to our camp, my tribe asked me what I did and I said I was an author, and I was.  They asked me if I was married and I said yes.  They asked me what my husband did and I said he worked for Fox Sports, which he does.  I was as honest as I could be at that point.

 

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Erinn, in that final tribal council, Stephen’s case for the million was that he really grew throughout the competition and learned to survive on his own.  Wouldn’t that have been your case as well, had you made it to the end?
A. Erinn: That was definitely part of my experience there.  I think that JT really said it best.  Growth is irrelevant.  It’s a really great side effect but it definitely would not have been my argument.  I think my argument would have been how I was able to adapt over and over again and how I was able to keep myself in the game as long as I did. 

Read on to see what Taj and Erinn had to say about their experiences on Survivor…

 

Q. Taj, How shocked were you when you were voted out?
A. Taj: I was devastated!  I thought the vote was completely unnecessary.  It would’ve been easier if I hadn’t been blindsided by the guys I had aligned myself with since day 1.

 

Q. Erinn, was it always your plan to jump ship at the merge or did that happen naturally?
A. Erinn: Oh my god, it was my plan to jump ship the first chance I got.  I think I got really lucky when Jerry got sick and I definitely knew that I was going to have to do something.  My tribe had made alliances on day 1 or day 2.  They assumed that I was in with Candace and that left me out of things so I knew that if I was going to have to do anything, it would have to be with the other tribe.  My tribe also assumed that I was going to flip and planned for it.

 

Q. Taj, if JT hadn’t accidentally seen the hidden idol in your bag, would you still have brought him in to your alliance?
A. Taj: Oh yeah!  When I had placed it in the bag, I went to the bathroom and it just so happened that, by the time I came back, he had looked in the bag.  We had planned to sit him down and tell him all about it.  In my mind, I was thinking that I needed to solidify JT’s vote before Joe came back from Exile. 

 

Q. Erinn, when you called out Coach about going to Exile, did you know how close that got you to being voted out?
A. Erinn: I think that it was definitely not the best move on my part.  I think that I would’ve done things a little differently, looking back.  Everything I said, I meant, and I would’ve said it a hundred times over.  I wish I didn’t say it so publicly because of the way that JT and Stephen reacted to it. 

 

Q. Taj, is there anything that surprised you when you watched the episodes back?
A. Taj: Nothing really surprised me because I knew what happened but it was touching to see how JT and Stephen felt bad for doing what they did… although they did it!

 

Q. Did Stephen or JT’s cases change your mind at that final tribal council?
A. Taj: Not for me.  I knew I was voting for JT.
A. Erinn: I was going to vote for Stephen.  I had definitely walked into that tribal council with intent to write his name down.  My question to him was, “Should I just vote for JT?” and he couldn’t really give me a reason not to.  That definitely changed my mind.

 

(Image courtesy of CBS)

 

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